The Playground that is the Arkansas Supreme Court Dives to New Depths for the New Year

The Arkansas Supreme Court has been embroiled in drama for quite some time now.  However, that drama hit a brand-new low note in the first week of the new year.

The court, out of the blue, without notice, warning, or a comment period, adopted brand new shiny Administrative Order Number 24. They did so by flexing their Amendment 80 muscle, though they declined to do so when I asked them previously in Reynolds v. Thurston, 2024 Ark. 97 (I am not bitter, I keep telling myself).

It appears that the court will only use Amendment 80 when its pride or perceived reputation are at issue.

Shiny Admin. Order No. 24 deals with the attempted firing of several court employees by new Chief Justice Karen Baker. In a per curiam (which is a latin legal phrase that means “by the court” and is used when the court speaks instead of a particular member of the court), that has Justice Rhonda Wood’s writing style all over it, the conservative justices take Howitzer shots at their liberal chief.

According to the opinion, on January 2. 2025, Chief Justice Baker brought the Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and Chief of the Arkansas Supreme Court police into her chambers for a dressing down.  In the process, the Chief Justice threatened to fire both long time employees.

Fast forward to today.  According to the per curiam, the Chief Justice decided to fire the following employees:

Apparently, one associate justice, I am guessing the author of the per curiam, asked to meet with the Chief Justice.  The Chief refused. Not to be out done, that one justice then rallied the conservative majority and at least four of them (there are now perceived to be five conservative justices with Justice Bronni receiving an appointment from the Governor) asked for a meeting.

According to the per curium, the Chief Justice again refused. This led the conservative majority to declare that the terminations were retaliatory.

Ouchie, as my eight-year-old would say.

And so the court made a new rule—court employees are still at-will employees, but it takes a majority of the court to fire them. The new rule is not the story here.  Instead, the concern is the new depths of depravity to which the members of the court continue to spiral like an airplane that suddenly lost its left wing at 30,000 feet.

Clinton W. Lancaster

Attorney. America First. Sued Hunter Biden for child support. Represented President Trump in the 2020 Wisconsin election challenge. Former attorney for the Wisconsin Special Counsel. An official “Tough Cookie” per President Trump.